Craft beer festival set for Saturday

Members of the Mt. Pleasant Jaycees have put together an addition that will debut Saturday to two other popular annual events.

Making its debut in Town Center, the Mt. Pleasant Craft Beer Festival, a complement to Le Tour de Mont Pleasant and the Mt. Pleasant Summer Festival, will feature brews from a variety of Michigan craft beer manufacturers.

It will also feature a VIP area hosted by Mountain Town Brewing Company, which will offer beers that are not available elsewhere, in addition to a close up view of Le Tour criterium racing.

Operating from 4 to 9 p.m. and open to adults 21 and older, the brew festival will offer samples of a variety of brews.

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Tickets are $20 for general admission and are available at 200 E. Broadway St., and limited numbers are available at Ric’s Food Center in Mt. Pleasant and the Shepherd Bar.

Tickets can also be purchased online at www.mpbeerfest.com.

Admission to the VIP area is sold out, according to the website.

All ticketholders will receive a sampling glass and six drink tickets when admitted to the festival.

Additional drink tickets can be purchased for $1, and most beverages for sampling will cost one ticket per pour.

Jaycees member Brian Anderson said the organization wanted to create a centralized event to tie together Le Tour and Summerfest, and started where others ran out of time to continue last year.

A group last year wanted to start a beer festival but ran out of time prior to the bicycle race and Summerfest to put it together, so Jaycees started again this year, working with Le Tour and Summerfest officials to bring the event downtown to add a finishing touch to the weekend, Anderson said.

The idea was to add another event to the downtown area to keep people entertained and interested during the last few hours of the bicycle race until the time that Summerfest music starts, Anderson said.

Brewers of craft beers in Michigan have responded well to the festival, Anderson said.

“We’ve had tremendous interest by the breweries to come,” he said. “We were hoping to have 16.